The Mueller Report

As someone who spent the greater part of the last three years in some kind of horrified shock over the election of the dumbest, most openly racist, most ethically and morally challenged, and most disturbingly unqualified of any candidate for any office in any part of this country as president, I definitely held out hope that the Mueller investigation might result in any early end to the reign of incompetent racism and raging corporatism, either via impeachment or a more hopeful resignation once all the facts of the corruption that have been a staple of every part of Trump's adult life, including his campaign and his charity, came to light.  Well a good portion of those facts have come to light, in reports over the past 3 years, in indictments and jail time for some of the most senior officials in the campaign (his campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, foreign policy "expert" and personal lawyer).  And when presented in their entirety in the belatedly released and still heavily redacted Mueller Report, they are shocking in their breadth and range.  Here's a man whose campaign actively sought help from a hostile foreign government to win an election and then spent the years after the election actively and wantonly attempting (successfully at times) to hamstring the investigation, with only the most egregious actions thwarted not by the prospect of breaking the law (something he's never had any qualms about doing) but by senior officials fearful of breaking the law so excessively they might get caught in what caught Manafort, Gates, Flynn, and Cohen and sent them to jail -- following the orders of an unstable narcissist with so many skeletons in his closet that he knew the appointment of a special counsel, as Mueller has reported, would leave him "fucked."  The words of a truly stable genius.  

But how fucked is he?  Is he fucked at all?  Much like everything that has happened in this nation in the past 3 years, it depends on whether Americans writ large find offense in the very same offenses that took down Nixon or much more serious offenses than even remotely were attached to Clinton before he was impeached - by some of the very same Republicans who now sit in the Senate.  Yes, some 55% of the country (which used to count as a majority back before minority rule began in 2010) are rightfully offended and disgusted and don't believe a word this man says.  But that small minority that continues to support him - LITERALLY NO MATTER WHAT -- because (racism? sexism? stupidity? Fox News? to own the 'libs'?) well just because - they won't turn on him so elected Republicans won't turn on him so any impeachment proceeding will end with an "exoneration" in the Senate and last time that happened, Bill Clinton's favorables shot up to the highest of his presidency and Democrats are fearful of that like they are fearful of everything so the odds we even get to that are slimmer than they should be,  particularly because of the gross lawbreaking but also because the guy is an incompetent narcissist whose every action reduces America's place in the world.  Old white guy Steny Hoyer did the old white guy thing and said let's not impeach before the ink was even dry on everyone's printout of the Mueller PDF because... Democrats.

So what should they do?  Well, first of all, despite the failed impeachment of Clinton, his Vice President Al Gore "lost" the election (yes he won the popular vote and yes the hanging chad debacle in Florida was never properly resolved and yes the Supreme Court filled with a Republican majority handed Bush the presidency but still Gore lost).  And Bush the president reigned for 8 years, having majorities in Congress for 6 of those years and fully conservative policies led to two massive tax cuts, the resulting massive deficits, the resulting world economic crash that got so bad we elected a (gasp!) black guy and the backlash resulted in 8 years of House majorities for Republicans and led to the election of our racist in chief.  But we forget all that.  We forget that happened after Clinton's impeachment.  We even forget the two never-ending wars ushered in by Bush's VP, the most evil man alive pre-Trump.  And yet somehow we are afraid that Trump's approval will soar if we impeach.  So OK.  Maybe it's a pointless exercise and maybe it hurts our election chances (but nobody actually knows that) but at the very least we need public hearings and public witnesses - Mueller and his team and all his key witnesses to detail all the horrible things Trump and his team did to sell out the country to win an election and then to obstruct the investigation in every way possible.  Will that sway undecided voters?  Are there undecided voters?  Who the fuck knows but we elected Democrats to be a check on the power of an incompetent narcissist and Mueller's report gives more than enough ammunition so go ahead and use it.  For once, Democrats in power, be political.  Drag out an investigation every week until the election - just like 38 committees investigating "Benghazi" for 4 years with zero findings of any illegal wrongdoings - not a single indictment, not even a single "wrongdoing" that anyone on Fox News still screaming Benghazi can point to - and what happened?  The mainstream media talked about Clinton's emails and her "untrustworthiness" for every single week up to the election and Trump won.  So fuck it.  Drag that fat orange asshole's aides up to the hill and grill them on everything, every week.  And if it results in an impeachment - if the evidence supports it (I think it does but I'm not a lawyer, obviously) then impeach his ass.  Stop being afraid.  Then when we win the presidency and Congress in 2020 on the heels of Mr. 42% falling even further out of favor (do you really think he won't become MORE unhinged if he's actually impeached? or if Don Jr. is getting roasted by AOC?) and then we get universal healthcare and a tax on millionaires and affordable college and climate change legislation and foreign allies supporting us again and all the things.  Wouldn't that be nice?  Can we ever have nice things in America again?  I don't know.  But if the Democrats do nothing, if they fold in the face of this like they have for over two decades of Republicans running roughshod over political norms and simple things like "laws" and "voting rights", well then I guess it's over for us a country.  Unless it already is.

​Happy Easter.